There are sandwiches, and then there is pastrami. It’s not just meat slapped between two slices of rye—it’s an art form, a culinary ritual passed down through immigrant delis and refined in smokers and brine buckets across the country. A great pastrami isn’t shy. It’s bold, smoky, pepper-crusted, and tender enough to pull apart with a glance. The fat should shimmer. The spice rub should speak in low, peppery tones. And if it’s served on rye? That rye better fight back.
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For some, delicatessen food is close to a religious experience. A tender, crumbling cut of corned beef steeped in its juices. A full-bodied garlic dill pickle. Spicy brown mustard with grain. A blintz that melts in your mouth like a creamsicle on a summer’s day. Recipes and culinary garnishes from Hungary, Poland, Russia, Romania that flowed into late 19th and early 20th century America and soon became part of an American culinary and cultural vernacular – Deli.
DELI MAN is a documentary film produced and directed by Erik Greenberg Anjou; the third work in his trilogy about Jewish culture. The celebrated preceding films are “A Cantor’s Tale” and “The Klezmatics – On Holy Ground,” which have to date screened at more than two hundred international film festivals and have been broadcast in the U.S., Israel, Canada and Poland. The principal guide of DELI MAN is the effusive and charming Ziggy Gruber, a third-generation delicatessen man, owner and maven (as well as a Yiddish-speaking French trained chef) who currently operates one of the country’s top delis, Kenny and Ziggy’s in Houston, Texas. Kenny and Ziggy’s has been touted in press reviews ranging from “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” to the L.A. Daily News. Continue reading
Filed under Steven Doyle
